Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès patents margarine
- When
- 1869–1871
- Where
- France; England and Austria; Netherlands
- Episodes
- 3
Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès, a French chemist, invented oleomargarine in 1869 following a challenge by Emperor Napoleon III to create a butter substitute. He filed a French patent in July 1869, which was granted in October. Despite securing patents in France, England, and Austria, he achieved little commercial success in France, eventually selling his patent to a Dutch company in 1871.
Episodes
- French Patent Filing
Mège-Mouriès filed French patent No. 86,480 for animal fat production on 15 July 1869, which was granted in October.
- International Patent Extensions
Mège-Mouriès secured additional patents in England and Austria in July and October 1869, expanding his intellectual property rights.
- Patent Sale to Jurgens
In 1871, Mège-Mouriès sold his patent to the Dutch company Jurgens and separately showed his invention to Dutch butter exporter Antoon Jurgens.
Background and detail
Background. Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès was a French chemist and inventor born in 1817. In 1867, he worked at the Imperial Farm in Vincennes near Paris. The invention of margarine arose from a challenge issued by Emperor Napoleon III to create a butter substitute from beef tallow for the armed forces and lower classes. Mège-Mouriès responded by developing oleomargarine in 1869.
Patent Process. Mège-Mouriès applied for multiple patents for the margarine production process. French patent No. 86,480 was filed on 15 July 1869 and granted on 2 October 1869 for fifteen years. He also secured patents in England on 17 July 1869 and in Austria on 31 October 1869. These legal protections were intended to secure his intellectual property rights.
Commercial Outcome. Despite the patents, Mège-Mouriès made very little profit from oleomargarine, which never became popular in France. In 1871, he sold the patent to the Dutch company Jurgens. The Netherlands had repealed its Patent Act in 1869, allowing companies like Jurgens and Simon van den Bergh to develop and sell margarine without patent restrictions, leading to greater commercial success abroad.
People involved
- Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès · Inventor and Patent Holder
- Napoleon III · Emperor and Challenge Issuer
- Antoon Jurgens · Dutch butter exporter shown the invention in 1871; distinct from the Dutch company Jurgens that bought the patent
Sources
- Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-29
- Margarine Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-04
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.